Wild Sage

[Fine Engineer]

I have an idea for a set of pens I'd like to make for a fundraiser, and one component of that is using wild sage as the primary wood. I have not seen any offered, so I though I'd see how doable this is. I'll document the effort here if anybody else is interested.

I live near a field with lots of sage plants. So I went and cut a couple of branches to clean up and see what the wood looks like. Here is the main branch I started with.

As you can see, there is a fair amount of work getting to the solid bit.

Here's the usable bits after trimming.

And here's what I have after further trimming and debarking.
As of now, I've coated the ends with wax, and these are inside to dry out. I'm thinking this shouldn't take too long as the humidity here is very low, and these are pretty thin. I'm hoping they will not split or crack too much.

I'll add updates as they occur.

 

[mark james]

I really like efforts like this. I myself have three similar sets of wood that came from my yard, and a yard by my In-Laws. While I love the Aussie Burls/species as a favorite continent, Western USA Redwoods, Buckeye, Desert Ironwood, etc, very local material simply interests me. I will make a new post on one of my 'mystery' woods that are drying.

I look forward to your results - have fun!

 

[JohnU]

Looking forward to seeing your results. I collected some sage while on a trip in WY last September. Mine wasn't as thick as yours so I was thinking about casting the top stems in a cluster. I thought I should have gathered more so I could play with color stabilizing them different colors before casting. Might be something for you to try since you have a field of it close by. I'm curious to see the character you get in the larger pieces. Good luck!

 

[jrista]

This is very interesting... Looking forward to seeing your results. Looks like some interesting wood.

 

[Woodchipper]

Looking forward to your pen. I see you are "branching out" by opening a "branch office."

 

[Fine Engineer]

I really like efforts like this. I myself have three similar sets of wood that came from my yard, and a yard by my In-Laws. While I love the Aussie Burls/species as a favorite continent, Western USA Redwoods, Buckeye, Desert Ironwood, etc, very local material simply interests me. I will make a new post on one of my 'mystery' woods that are drying.

I look forward to your results - have fun!

One of the cool things about this craft is that it uses very little wood, so you can get a lot of mileage from very small samples. Not like furniture where you need a whole tree to make something.

 

[gware]

I played a little with sage and found the hardest part for me was starting out with a piece big enough. It splits and blows up easily. I finally soaked it with thin CA, turned down some and soaked again. I went through a lot of wood to get a couple pens. I've got more drying that is 2" plus in diameter in hope I can get a few more.

 

[howsitwork]

Nothing like that here but how about soaking a bit in vegetable oil to see if that slows drying and stabilises it a bit ? I was going to suggest cactus juice soaking for a few weeks but have no experience with it.

 

[Fine Engineer]

I played a little with sage and found the hardest part for me was starting out with a piece big enough. It splits and blows up easily. I finally soaked it with thin CA, turned down some and soaked again. I went through a lot of wood to get a couple pens. I've got more drying that is 2" plus in diameter in hope I can get a few more.

Those look really nice Greg. It looks like sage is a difficult wood to work with, but it may be worth it for the exclusivity factor.

I just checked on my sticks that are drying, and most are still above 15% moisture (the largest piece is 22%). I'll monitor it daily to see how fast it dries, and at about 8% I'll look at milling it. I have some small segments I want to try casting in resin to see how that goes.

Jeff

 

[gware]

Those look really nice Greg. It looks like sage is a difficult wood to work with, but it may be worth it for the exclusivity factor.

I just checked on my sticks that are drying, and most are still above 15% moisture (the largest piece is 22%). I'll monitor it daily to see how fast it dries, and at about 8% I'll look at milling it. I have some small segments I want to try casting in resin to see how that goes.

Jeff

That may have been part of my problem, I let it dry for only a couple months. I don't have a moisture meter yet so it was a total guess. I have used Pentacryl on fresh cut wood with good results I may try it again. Post pics when you get those turned. I'm really interested in how they turn out. I live in Utah and can find Sage Brush that is 6-7 ft. tall and it's pretty cheap.

 

[Fine Engineer]

That may have been part of my problem, I let it dry for only a couple months. I don't have a moisture meter yet so it was a total guess. I have used Pentacryl on fresh cut wood with good results I may try it again. Post pics when you get those turned. I'm really interested in how they turn out. I live in Utah and can find Sage Brush that is 6-7 ft. tall and it's pretty cheap.

At this point I have no idea how fast this will dry out. I milled some Willow and some Cottonwood and these were down to <5% moisture in a couple of days. Being small sections should help it dry quicker than large boards or logs.

I might have to do some driving to find larger sage bushes. All the ones around me are less than 4' tall. Larger plants would yield more usable wood.

 

[Fine Engineer]

One week in, and the wood is drying nicely. The little parts are already down to single digits, and the small sticks are in the 10-12% range now. The larger stick is interesting as some of it is around 10%, while other parts are still up near 20%. No cracking observable yet, so I'm hopeful that the large stick dries intact in the next couple of weeks.

I have a colleague at work that does some acrylic casting, so I'm going to have him cast the small sticks into two or three blanks for me. Ill have him use a dark color to contrast with the light colored wood.

 

[Fine Engineer]

Two weeks in and the progress is still good. The small segments are now all down to 6-8% moisture. The two larger sticks are mostly 8-9% with a few pockets still registering 12-13%. I'm going to cast the small pieces in resin, and I have a small stick that I think I'll start working with and see what is in it.

No strange warping or cracking evident yet. Keeping my fingers crossed that this will work out to be an interesting material to work with.

 

[Fine Engineer]

So I got a bit impatient, and took the small stick, and made a pen with it. I must say, this wood looks outstanding.
I wasn't sure how this would turn out, so I just used an inexpensive Slimline kit, but even with that, I'm very happy with the outcome.

This is giving me the confidence to try some of the other material.

 

[mark james]

So I got a bit impatient, and took the small stick, and made a pen with it. I must say, this wood looks outstanding.
I wasn't sure how this would turn out, so I just used an inexpensive Slimline kit, but even with that, I'm very happy with the outcome.

This is giving me the confidence to try some of the other material.

That came out very nice. Well done.

 

[Fine Engineer]

So it looks like 4 weeks is the time required to dry sage branches to <10% moisture. The large branch was dry enough, so I cut into that for these PSI Designers. The material was a bit tricky, and stretched my turning capabilities a little, but the result was pretty good. I didn't have enough material to cut a proper blank without wasting a lot, so I just set a fence on the band saw for 3/4" and went from there. The blanks were very irregular, but large enough to get a good hole through with enough wood to turn down. Both had some divots from surface shapes that went below the turned surface, so I filled those with turning dust and thin CA. One was in the top part that I largely hid under the clip, the other really just looks like coloration in the wood, so it works as a feature instead of a blemish.

All that said, I really like working with this, and want to find a good source of this somewhere near me in Northern Nevada.

 

[KenB259]

Quite beautiful wood, extremely nice in fact.

 

[Jim15]

Those look great.

 

[mark james]

Beautiful timber and I love your finish! Very nicely done. Thanks for the update.

 

[jdclaus]

That's very interesting. We have lots of sage in E. WA and I've wanted to try some. Maybe I'll make an effort to get some now that I've seen yours.

 

[jrista]

So it looks like 4 weeks is the time required to dry sage branches to <10% moisture. The large branch was dry enough, so I cut into that for these PSI Designers. The material was a bit tricky, and stretched my turning capabilities a little, but the result was pretty good. I didn't have enough material to cut a proper blank without wasting a lot, so I just set a fence on the band saw for 3/4" and went from there. The blanks were very irregular, but large enough to get a good hole through with enough wood to turn down. Both had some divots from surface shapes that went below the turned surface, so I filled those with turning dust and thin CA. One was in the top part that I largely hid under the clip, the other really just looks like coloration in the wood, so it works as a feature instead of a blemish.

All that said, I really like working with this, and want to find a good source of this somewhere near me in Northern Nevada.
View attachment 326908

These really ended up lookin GREAT! I like that wood, has a lot of character. Good pen choice for the wood too, I think!

 

[RichAldrich]

Great project. Nice color, form and a killer finish. Good job!

 

[gware]

So it looks like 4 weeks is the time required to dry sage branches to <10% moisture. The large branch was dry enough, so I cut into that for these PSI Designers. The material was a bit tricky, and stretched my turning capabilities a little, but the result was pretty good. I didn't have enough material to cut a proper blank without wasting a lot, so I just set a fence on the band saw for 3/4" and went from there. The blanks were very irregular, but large enough to get a good hole through with enough wood to turn down. Both had some divots from surface shapes that went below the turned surface, so I filled those with turning dust and thin CA. One was in the top part that I largely hid under the clip, the other really just looks like coloration in the wood, so it works as a feature instead of a blemish.

All that said, I really like working with this, and want to find a good source of this somewhere near me in Northern Nevada.
View attachment 326907View attachment 326908
View attachment 326909

Those look really nice. I hope mine look that good.